A whitewash job

Johnson Thomas

This is an unauthorized biopic that could well get reeled off the theatre circuit if there was found to be anything remotely litigious – after all the company is known to go after any and everyone who has been libelous in their recrimination of it. So, it’s little wonder that director John Lee Hancock prefers to make this picture with as little cynicism about the opportunistic founder—the film’s titular character. Robert Siegel’s screenplay, as a result prefers to tread cautiously around the facts while staying hesitant about calling out the unethical schemer for what he is. Instead, he tries to balance it out by making Kroc’s consequent achievements glorifiable. 

Michael Keaton is Ray Kroc, the man who helped make McDonald's originally founded by the McDonald brothers with high-quality foodstuffs produced to exacting quality-controlled standards and made with incredible speed, a billion-dollar brand.

Expository dialogue and edited flashbacks explain how the brothers assembled their workers on a tennis court to perfect the production to service process to exacting standards. Kroc, a travelling salesman for six spindle mixers barges in with a plan to franchise their menu, system and branding elements and the McDonald brothers reluctantly agree to try it out.

Ray starts a branch near his home in Illinois by raising capital through the mortgage of his house- and mind you, he has not informed his disenchanted long suffering wife Ethel (Laura Dern) of his financial skullduggery.

He eventually gains control over the brand and sets out to spread it out far and wide marking the McDonald's brand as his very own empire. Kroc here is glorified as a capitalist, a winner who gains lucre by triumphing over idealism. But it’s not really the whole truth of the matter. Kroc’s unscrupulous appropriation of the McDonald brothers winning idea marks him as a much darker character than this film chooses to depict. 

We can’t blame the filmmakers for playing safe, after all this is an investment that may not take-off as well as the McDonald’s brand did. And especially since there’s no sharp delineation coming from it!